Depends on what you call average use really,
I read for about 3 hours, listen to about 1 hour of music send a couple of texts and use the phone for about 140 minutes in a day and still have 40% battery life left when I go to bed.
The biggest drain I found was apps permanently on (auto kill required) and 3G permanently on with apps running background data (Quick settings app can cure this).

It depends a lot on what running. Having 3G+push email = like 10%/hour, so you have "just" 10 hours of battery life....
On the other hand, I often use it relatively lightly (1.5 hour internet/mail, 30min calling, 30 min other stuff), and it lasts 2 days on a charge....Over the weekend I use it even less, and it lasts for 4 days easily (now at 69%, 51 hours since last charge).

On Froyo, you can barely get one day of usage. And it's Samsung's fault.

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Three days if you barely use the phone at all, I only got one day out of 2.1 and everyone I know who uses this phone on 2.1 is having exactly the same experience, you are seriously exaggerating the difference.

Same, I can turn off the bluetooth, gps, wifi, sync and push it over 2 days and that's not even trying not to use it. I'll send and receive my texts and phone calls and it will still get the best part of 2 days. Probably 3 if I don't use it at all.

And I hope Froyo is an improvement in batter life, and not a step backwards.

My battery is terrible... LOVE the phone but with heavy use i have to charge it a couple of times a day.
Luckily since i have had it my main use is at home & work so had a charger handy, not lookig foward to full days out etc.

I heard that people have had a new battery sent out from Samsung if they moan LOTS... Might give it a go.

I have found if i play games/browse/listen to music solid, i get a few hours max.

How can you turn the 3G off? And does turning the 3G off disable all cellular?

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I use the app "APN OnOff" - a widget on the main screen allows me to turn 3G on/off whenever I need it...made a huge change - now I can use it for multiple days, whereas with 3G on all the time it is limited to 1 day.

I use the app "APN OnOff" - a widget on the main screen allows me to turn 3G on/off whenever I need it...made a huge change - now I can use it for multiple days, whereas with 3G on all the time it is limited to 1 day.

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Kasper-
Unless I am missing something, my Samsung Captivate does not have that widget. I double checked the manual and its not listed there either. Is the widget you are referring to a download?
Thanks.

guys you should try doing the following things to conserve battery life:

1. turn off wifi/gprs when not in use
2. close constantly running applications by installing advanced task killer
3. close animations by going to settings, sound and displays.
4. adjust screen timeout to 15 or 30 seconds to conserve energy.

By doing the following you can dramatically increase the battery life.

I get about 2 days use out of a full charge, running a custom Froyo ROM on my Galaxy S. I keep 3G turned off and only activate it when I have a specific need - I've found that helps battery life enormously.